


A Reasonable List of Demands

by Crait



Category: Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics), Marvel (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 17:47:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17166470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crait/pseuds/Crait
Summary: Jim Rhodes: pet sitter?





	A Reasonable List of Demands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FairestCat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairestCat/gifts).



"I am not qualified for this," Jim said.

It was such a patently ridiculous statement that Carol snorted, because she'd never met anyone as overqualified for every possible situation as Jim Rhodes. "Doesn't the entire DoD want you to run for president?"

"That is a wild exaggeration—"

She kicked her feet up into his lap. "It's three days. Come on, flyboy. You can handle her for three days."

He looked at the cat currently stretched down the middle of Carol's chest and sighed like she was asking him to retrieve a cosmic cube from the other side of the galaxy. "Can't Jessica do it?"

"She has a baby."

"Oh, don't think I didn't see that face," he said. "But yeah. Okay. Three days. I can handle that, even if she is an alien."

"It's not the alien part you have to worry about," Carol said, and she covered Chewie's skull with her hand. Chewie started purring. "She doesn't get along with, uh, well... a lot of people..."

"So she's a cat."

"And sometimes she's kind of grouchy..."

"What you're saying," said Jim, "is that she's a cat."

"And if she decides she does like you," Carol added, "she might try to sleep on your face."

"In other words, she's a cat."

"She's a _special_ cat."

"Because she's an alien?"

"Because she's _my_ cat," Carol said. Jim snorted, but he was trying to play it cool, like he didn't think watching Captain Marvel worry about a ten-pound ball of teeth and fluff was hysterical. Typical cat non-owner. 

"You think maybe you're worried about this for other reasons?"

Carol blinked and then shifted her gaze to the open window. What she could see without moving her head from the arm of her couch was a fair, cloudless sky; it seemed like it went on forever. "No."

"Tony told me about the panic attack."

"Ugh. That was a long time ago."

"A couple of months ago," Jim corrected, "and you've been through a lot since then."

"I know what I'm doing. If you think I shouldn't leave—"

"Whoa there. I'm not sayin' that, just that it's okay to freak out a little."

Chewie yawned and did a barrel roll onto her side. Her front paws were kneading air. "A little, huh?"

"Not a lot, but yeah, a little."

"I lost Mom," Carol said. "I lost you, and I just got you back, and now I'm taking off again—"

"It's three days. I'll be here when you get back. And so will your cat." He put his big, warm hand on her ankle, and a shudder of contentedness shot from the tips of her toes straight up to the top of her head. Carol wasn't used to lazy days like this, especially now that she was back in the real world, released from the cocoon of familial mourning, but she could damn well get used to them.

"Three days," she said. "No problem. But—this is important, Rhodes, pay attention—you have to mix her wet food with water or she won't eat it. And don't leave plastic anywhere she can get at it, she doesn't _eat_ it but she will try to _chew_ on it and you can't take any risks. Also, she has this stuffed Death Star she likes to play with, and you need to make sure she doesn't lose it somewhere or she'll get upset."

"Oh god," Jim groaned. "I'm gonna need to make a list."


End file.
